Mr Burgess delivered a parting shot on Thursday, criticising a system that allows senior staff to be dismissed for political rather than performance reasons.

"I think that there needs to be a high-level policy review to ensure that similar circumstances are not allowed to exist in other councils," he said. "All general managers should be objectively assessed based on performance."

Mr Burgess thanked and farewelled those who gathered to support him outside the meeting, including some of the 158 staff who signed a petition against his dismissal.

The three-hour meeting that resolved council "does not have confidence" in Mr Burgess also granted Cr Attie the authority to revise council's structure to give councillors "greater responsibilities" through committees for each department.

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The votes had the backing of Cr Attie's fellow Liberals – Ronney Oueik and Stephen Yang – as well as Labor's George Campbell and Hicham Zraika.

Cr Zraika said while he felt there was nothing in a legal report presented to council that justified Mr Burgess' dismissal, the changes would help put the "witch hunt" by some councillors to rest.

Cr Campbell said council had been "dysfunctional" and the removal of Mr Burgess would act as a "circuit breaker".

"The public can look forward to the councillors they elected taking greater responsibility in decision-making and for improved efficiency in the implementation of council decisions," he said.

In December, councillors voted to allow a function centre with ongoing fire safety problems six months to address them, halting moves by staff to have it shut down.

Cr Simms, who joined councillors Le Lam, Salim Mehajer, Irene Simms, Semra Batik and Tony Oldfield in opposing Wednesday night's vote, said she was disappointed by the result.

"I believe that, in dismissing the GM, council has not addressed the problem; they have quite probably fired the solution," she said.

A rescission motion has been lodged to try and reverse the move next week.

It is not the first time a group of councillors, including the mayor, have been embroiled in a bid to dismiss the general manager.

Mr Burgess has survived a similar attempt to sack him last year, which came after he had reported a case of suspected bribery to the corruption watchdog.

Another councillor, independent Jack Au, was subsequently stood down by Local Government Minister Don Page after Mr Burgess' complaint led to corruption findings by the Independent Commission Against Corruption.